Play Brazilian Draughts vs the Computer

A free AI opponent on three levels · Updated August 20, 2026

Esta página em português: Damas contra o computador

You do not need a second player to enjoy Brazilian draughts. Checkers Arena includes a free computer opponent that plays the full international rules — backward captures, flying kings and the compulsory maximum capture — on three difficulty levels. It runs entirely in your browser, with no signup.

The three difficulty levels, exactly

Most sites describe their computer opponent with adjectives. Here are the actual settings, because "medium" means nothing on its own. A half-move is one side playing once, so a full move by both players is two of them.

Easy and medium are capped by their search depth and answer almost instantly. Hard is capped by a time budget instead and spends all of it, reaching roughly thirteen half-moves in a typical Brazilian middlegame — that is nearly seven full moves of accurate calculation, and it is why sacrifices that look clever against easy get refuted immediately here.

The default level is easy, on purpose: winning your first game is the main reason anyone plays a second. Your choice is remembered in your browser, so if you move up you stay there.

How the computer decides on a move

The opponent uses a classic game-tree search — minimax with alpha-beta pruning and iterative deepening under a time budget — over the exact same rules engine that runs the live board. It searches one half-move deeper, re-orders its candidate moves using what that pass taught it, then goes deeper again until the clock stops it. Two refinements do most of the work:

• Move ordering. Alpha-beta only pays off when the strongest move is examined first, so the engine remembers which moves caused a cutoff elsewhere in the tree and tries those first. That alone removes about two thirds of the positions it would otherwise examine.
• A transposition table. The same position is reachable by many different move orders. The engine hashes each one and remembers its conclusion, so it never solves the same problem twice — worth roughly another third on top.

Because captures are compulsory and often forced, it looks especially carefully at capture sequences, so it will happily set up and cash in long combinations. It values kings highly, reflecting how dominant a flying king is. Every move it plays is generated by the rules engine itself, so an illegal move is not something it can produce — and the same engine validates every move you make.

Coming from American checkers? Read this first

Brazilian draughts uses the identical board and the identical starting position as American checkers, which is exactly what makes it dangerous. Everything your hands already know still applies, and three rules that do not exist in American checkers are working against you from move one.

The one that costs most games is the backward capture. In American checkers a man that has slipped past an enemy piece is safe from it forever. Here it is not: an uncrowned man captures in all four diagonal directions, so a piece you walked past two moves ago can still take you. The computer will take it every single time it pays.

The second is the flying king: a promotion here is not a slightly better man, it is a piece that sweeps a whole diagonal and picks its landing square. The third is compulsory maximum capture, which quietly removes your freedom to choose — and hands you a weapon in return, since it removes the computer's too. The differences page lays all three out side by side.

Seven ways to beat it

• Guard against backward captures. A piece that looks safely behind the computer's line is not safe. Check both diagonals behind each of your men, every move.
• Use the maximum rule as a weapon. The computer does not choose its capture — the longest one is its only legal move. A sacrifice that forces a specific sequence lets you pick its reply for it, several moves in advance.
• Count the whole chain before you take. Because captures chain, a "free" piece is very often bait. Follow the sequence to its end, including the recapture.
• Race for the first king, then use it immediately. A flying king that sits at home is wasted; its value is in the open diagonal it controls.
• Do not trade just because you are ahead. This is sound advice in American checkers and much weaker here — with flying kings, one piece can hold off two.
• Watch the long diagonal. The unbroken corner-to-corner line is the most valuable real estate on the board once kings appear.
• Slow down in the endgame. Hard is at its strongest with few pieces left, where its search can see all the way to the end of the game.

Practising without an opponent

Playing the computer is one way to improve; checking your own ideas is another. The analysis board lets you set up a position and asks the engine what the best move is and why — useful right after a game you are sure you should have won. There is also a daily puzzle, and an endgame database holding every position with four pieces or fewer, solved exactly. Both of those tools are American checkers only for now; the computer opponent plays all four variants.

When you would rather face a person, every variant can be played online — an invite link puts a friend on the other side of the board in one click, with no account needed on either side.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Brazilian draughts computer opponent free?

Yes. All three difficulty levels are free, with no signup and no download. The opponent runs in your browser rather than on a server, so a game costs nothing and starts instantly.

How strong is the Brazilian draughts AI?

On hard it calculates about thirteen half-moves ahead and never plays a deliberately weak move, which is a genuine club-level test. On easy it looks two half-moves ahead and weakens roughly one move in three, so a beginner can win. Medium sits between them at three half-moves and one weak move in seven.

Can the computer cheat at Brazilian draughts?

No. The opponent generates its moves with the same rules engine that validates yours, so an illegal move is not something it can produce. It also sees exactly the position you see — draughts has no hidden information to give it.

Why does the computer always take the biggest capture?

Because it has no choice. Brazilian draughts enforces compulsory maximum capture: when several capture sequences are available, the one taking the most pieces is the only legal move for either side. That applies to you as well, which is why the board will sometimes offer you exactly one move.

Is Brazilian draughts harder than American checkers?

Tactically, yes — noticeably. The board and the starting position are identical, but backward captures and flying kings mean combinations are shorter to set up and far more punishing to miss. Most players who arrive from American checkers lose their first few games to a backward capture they never saw coming.

New to the rules? Read the Brazilian draughts rules first, or see how the game differs from others on the differences page.